The chronology of the events, corroborated to me by multiple sources, involves Chase walking off the set of the show on the last day of shooting last month without filming one of his scenes, which reportedly was to close out the season finale. Then at the wrap party, Harmon got up and gave a “F*** you, Chevy” speech in front of Chase and his wife and daughter, and encouraged the crew to join him in saying “f*** you” to the actor. Chase left immediately and later left Harmon a profane-laden voice message, a portion of which found its way to the Web after Harmon played it in front of other people.

The Deadline article links to Chase's message, but I don't want to listen to it.

I have creative issues with this show. I always have. With my character, with how far you can take [Joel McHale's] character ... just to give him a long speech about the world at the end of every episode is so reminiscent. It's like being relegated to hell and watching "Howdy Doody" for the rest of your life. It's not particularly necessary, but that's the way they do these things. I think it belies the very pretenses that his character, Jeff, has, that he's giving these talks. They're supposed to, in some way, be a little lesson to people who watch sitcoms ... to that degree, I can't stand sitcoms.

[...]

I'm not really gonna buck you all up a lot and say that this is the one, the one that tells it innovatively. It is what it is. I would like to see it go further. I think, if you know me and my humor over the years, you know that this is certainly not my kind of thing. I probably won't be around that much longer, frankly.

It feels dishonest not to acknowledge it, it feels rude to the caring fans of the show, people who are tweeting me their concerns that I’ve jeopardized something they fight to protect, those are the sentiments that are [rightfully] the most painful because every choice I make, I try to make for the good of the show, and the show is not an expression of my ego or entitlement, it’s an expression of my desire to make strangers happy. When that’s not happening, when I’ve done something that hurts an audience, it’s always an accident.

“Critical Film Studies,” the 19th episode of the 2nd season of Community, was probably pretty confusing to most fans of the series when it aired in the Spring of 2011. Heavily promoted by NBC as the show’s full-scale Pulp Fiction parody, the episode turned out instead to be a lengthy and rather muted (by the show’s standards) homage to Louis Malle’s My Dinner With Andre, with only a few Tarantino sight gags tucked neatly away in the periphery. People were understandably disappointed: Community appeared to have traded a spoof of one of the most enduringly popular and widely acclaimed films of the last several decades in a for a more affectionate and high-minded take on a film few in the show’s key demo knew anything at all about. It was, in a sense, an intellectual bait and switch: they promised something familiar but delivered a reference that would prove more substantive, both intellectually and emotionally.

To some extent, Community's popularity and the emergence of these independent internet cultures are driven by demographic changes on the internet, which is more ethnically, racially and socio-economically diverse, and far more female than it used to be. The show's cast matches that shift; it also skews younger, and where Big Bang Theory's cultural references lean heavy on iconic comic-book geekery, Community's Barenaked Ladies, Friends and Luis Guzman jokes feed into the instant nostalgia that makes those "You Know You Were a 90s Kid If..." Thought Catalog and Buzzfeed articles so terrifyingly popular.

The youth of the new internet cultures, and the sites on which they're emerging — Tumblr, Reddit, 4chan, Twitter — is important, because their different relationship to geek cultures partially marks a generational shift. HBO is making multipart fantasy sagas and FX is optioning semi-obscure Image comics, so Big Bang Theory, which drenches itself in meticulously accurate geek-culture references, isn't the big deal to the internet that it would've been in the days when message boards were mostly devoted to complaining about comic-book movies taking huge liberties with their source material and television writers not checking the science behind their relativity jokes.

In fact, the obsessive sci-fi/fantasy fandom with which Big Bang Theory beats its viewers over the head is increasingly foreign to a youthful internet culture, which recognizes Community's seamless and unconcerned weaving of geek tropes and icons into its universe as more familiar and more realistic. Community, which devoted an entire episode to a Dungeons and Dragons session uses geek culture as a means to explore its characters. On Big Bang Theory it's supposed to be a end unto itself.

Let’s admit this up front: Community has a formula. In their most popular and acclaimed episodes, they take a small-stakes event (such as a paintball match, a game of dungeons and dragons, the disappearance of chicken fingers from the school cafeteria) and treat them as if they are life-or-death matters. But the fact that it’s a formula doesn’t make it any less profound. Community manages to illuminate a central hidden truth about human relations: Small things matter.

The Michael K. Williams "man's gotta have a code" jokes were my favorite parts of last night's episode.

... not just the line itself, though, but also Dean Pelton's hysterical reaction. (Between this and his response to Jeff's aviator shades, a few episodes back, the Dean's reactions to things have provided some of the funniest moments of the season.)

NBC has picked up a half dozen new shows for next season and multiple reports say the network will give final shortened seasons to its veteran sitcoms "30 Rock," "Community" and "Parks and Recreation."

NBC had not confirmed any pickups of returning shows as of early afternoon Tuesday. But the network in the past has embraced all three, despite their relatively low ratings, because they are critical and cult favorites.

For what its worth, I have seen several reports-- including one from Alan Sepinwall, who has been cited several times in this thead-- note that the report Jason posted is not necessarily accurate. While 30 Rock has been picked up for its final season, and while Community has also been renewed, there is no official confirmation that it will be the last season of Community, or even that it will be a short one (NBC may up its order from 13 episodes to a full season, depending on ratings). Parks and Rec has not officially been renewed at all, but at this point it seems pretty likely, what with it getting higher ratings than Community does.

I also have to say that last night's Community was a great one for long-time fans-- loved the references to the paintball episodes, to the "secret trampoline," to the previous clip shows, to the missing pen, and so on.

Personally, I don't feel like the episodes have been too Abed-centric. For example, "Virtual Systems Analysis" was just as much about Annie as it was about Abed and "Basic Lupine Urology" was a nice showcase for nearly everyone. Haven't seen last night's episode yet.

Last night's episode caught me off guard. At first, it seemed like it was just a retread of "Paradigms of Human Memory," but with John Hodgman instead of the monkey (Annie's Boobs). But then it switched at the end of act two and became something different. I thought the episode worked really well.

I liked the 8-bit episode for its "only on Community" formal boldness, and thought they pulled it off fairly well... but I think both that episode and the Ocean's 11 homage were a little bit lacking in the more emotional and human elements that characterize the show at its best, and that you find more abundantly in similar episodes like the claymation one, etc. But both were funny and clever, and the finale-- easily my favorite episode of the night-- had enough heart for the whole lot of them.